The two children’s advocacy centers under the Childhelp umbrella support a highly effective, nationally recognized one-stop approach to child abuse response. As models of community collaboration, the Centers provide a child-friendly facility where members of the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) interview victims, conduct medical exams, provide specialized mental health treatment, and provide family members with referrals to other community resources while law enforcement agencies and county attorneys pursue the prosecution of offenders. The MDT includes law enforcement, child protective services, and medical, mental health, and legal professionals. The multi-disciplinary team exemplifies community cooperation to improve outcomes for victims and their communities.
Childhelp Advocacy Centers
The centers offer a multidisciplinary team approach, bringing together professionals such as law enforcement officials, child protective services, medical professionals, mental health providers, and victim advocates.
One-stop approach to child abuse response
Children’s Center of Arizona
Since 1998, the Childhelp Children’s Center of Arizona Dedicated to Linda Pope has served abused and neglected children by providing treatment, intervention, and investigation services in a child-friendly and child-centric environment.
Children’s Center of East Tennessee
Since 1995, the fully accredited Childhelp Children’s Center of East Tennessee has served victims of child abuse and neglect through advocacy, treatment and investigation services.
Children’s Center of Arizona
Since 1998, the Childhelp Children’s Center of Arizona Dedicated to Linda Pope has served abused and neglected children by providing treatment, intervention, and investigation services in a child-friendly and child-centric environment. The goal of the Center is to provide services that address the immediate safety and complete well-being of children referred to the Center.
Treatment, Intervention, and Investigation Services
Since 1998, the Childhelp Children’s Center of Arizona Dedicated to Linda Pope has served abused and neglected children by providing treatment, intervention, and investigation services in a child-friendly and child-centric environment.
In order to meet the needs of children, ages birth–18, the center includes a playroom for younger children and a teen lounge for adolescents. With a focus on the child’s experience, the center is a high profile, high volume, and highly successful example of professional integration and coordination of treatment, intervention, and investigation services.
When abuse happens
Before children’s advocacy centers, child victims relived their abuse by telling their story to one official after another so each agency could get information relevant to their investigative role. At the Childhelp Children’s Center of Arizona, our team is colocated with teams from Phoenix Children’s Hospital, the Office of Child Welfare Investigations, and the entire Phoenix Police Department’s Crimes Against Children Unit. We also partner with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, the Office of the Attorney General, and the Department of Child Safety. Involving these crucial partners in each step of the investigation not only shortens the initial investigative process, but also eliminates children visiting multiple locations for multiple interviews.
Children are interviewed by our specially-trained forensic interviewers in a comfortable atmosphere that enables them to talk openly. The interviews are developmentally and culturally sensitive, unbiased, fact-finding, and legally sound. As part of the process, children may also receive a specialized medical examination to gather evidence of physical or sexual assault.
Our victim advocacy team provides support and resources to non-offending caregivers. And as a licensed outpatient clinic, we offer clinical services including sensory modulation, occupational therapy and counseling for children and non-offending family members, as well as trauma therapy for kids, ages 5–17. Our therapy services are available in both English and Spanish, and financial assistance is available to children without insurance or who don’t qualify for AHCCCS.
Enrichment programs
Trainings
- Clinical Services and Advocacy Teams provide relevant, customized training to community partners including Department of Child Safety, law enforcement, foster care services and providers, and other community partners upon request.
- The Children’s Justice Coordinator works with Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to provide Mandated Reporter Training throughout the community to those mandated by law to report child abuse. This includes schools, faith based programs, law enforcement, case workers and case aids, and others upon request.
Community Partnerships
- Staff assisted with revision of Maricopa County’s Joint Investigation Protocol and implemented a Joint Investigations Protocol Training. This training provides Children’s Advocacy Centers and Family Advocacy Centers throughout Maricopa County with intensive review of the protocol to ensure best possible outcomes for children involved in investigations.
- Community Partners work with staff at the Childhelp Children’s Center of Arizona to provide gifts to therapy and advocacy families during the winter holidays and throughout the year during prominent times of their lives (i.e. birthdays, adoption days, graduations, etc.)
- Community members also work with the Childhelp Children’s Center of Arizona service providers to make referrals and resources available to families and children throughout Arizona.
Empowerment
- Each child who receives services at the Childhelp Children’s Center of Arizona Dedicated to Linda Pope for the first time receives a new toy or other gift.
- Donations are collected year-round to provide overnight kits, back-to-school supplies, spring baskets, and other seasonal gifts to children visiting the Center as well as address basic needs presented during initial visits to the Center.
The Program at a Glance
- The Childhelp Children’s Center of Arizona Dedicated to Linda Pope supports a multidisciplinary response to child maltreatment cases, engaging professionals, community partners and families for the well-being of clients.
- Childhelp is an accredited member of the National Children’s Alliance, indicating adherence to all national standards for child advocacy centers.
- All aspects of the facility reflect attention-to-detail, providing a child-friendly environment and atmosphere. A large glass-walled playroom, fully equipped with toys and activities, is available for children and their siblings to use, as well as a teen room for older children. Trained volunteers help in the playroom with supervision of the children.
- The center was showcased in the U.S. Department of Justice’s 1999 video of “best practice” facilities serving victims of crime. As a “best practice” agency, it continues to serve as a model for advocacy centers nationwide.
Children’s Center of East Tennessee
Since 1995, the fully accredited Childhelp Children’s Center of East Tennessee has served victims of child abuse and neglect through advocacy, treatment and investigation services. Walls adorned with bright colored murals, a playroom filled with toys, and a dress-up closet develops a sense of safety and happiness in victims.
Advocacy, treatment and investigation services
There were more than 8,000 substantiated cases of child abuse in Tennessee in 2014, illustrating an indisputable need for the advocacy center. The center supports all services to treat and investigate abuse under one roof: medical personnel, law enforcement, child protection investigators and mental health professionals. The professionals all complete their related jobs within the center, reducing secondary trauma to the child and producing reliable evidence to support cases against perpetrators.
The road to recovery
Many children who enter the center are scared, confused and have difficulty trusting those who are trying to help. Therefore, a victim advocate will assist children through the process and explain each step of the process.
The child’s first stop is to meet a forensic interviewer trained to work with children and victims of abuse. After the interview, children may also receive a medical exam to gather evidence, decide what kind of medical attention is needed or assure parents that their children do not require additional treatment. Prior to advocacy centers, investigations and interviews could take over 16 hours, and children would have to recount their traumatic experience in places that were rarely comforting for a child.
Victims and their families also receive mental health treatment to help them understand what they are going through and give them the strength to move on. Furthermore, court preparation is also one of the critical services provided by the center because dealing with a court case is very traumatic and stressful for a child.
A life-changing collaboration
Community members and agencies recognize the crisis of child abuse and united through partnerships to heal victims and fight abuse. The partnerships that allow children to heal while keeping them safe from perpetrators at the center are: Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, The East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, Knoxville Police Department, Knox County District Attorney’s Office, Knox County Juvenile Court and Knox County Sheriff’s Department.
Enrichment programs
About the program
Each child who receives services at the Childhelp Children’s Center for the first time will receive a new toy or other gift.
Partnership with the Knoxville Museum of Art provides children with the opportunity to be exposed to artwork.
The program at a glance
- Highly skilled staff with superior specialized training in the field of child trauma care, child abuse investigation and therapeutic counseling.
- The only child advocacy center for Knox County, a “one-stop shop” of services for children including medical exams, mental health services, victim advocacy and forensic interviews.
- A fully accredited member of the National Children’s Alliance, a national accrediting body for child advocacy centers.
- Provides forensic interviews and medical exams for some surrounding counties that do not currently have those capabilities.
- Partners include local and state agencies and elected officials.
- Childhelp holds a Mental Health license with the State of Tennessee.
Childhelp’s Relative Care Giver Program
- Must meet 200% of the federal poverty income to qualify
- Individualized family plan
- 24/7 crisis support
- Educational support services
- Daily stipend provided
- Free mental health therapy
- Parent training classes
Other Assistance
- Assistance with food insecurity
- Clothing, school supplies, and home support items
Childhelp’s mental health clinical services
Childhelp’s Mental Health Clinical Services is a child friendly, child focused therapy clinic that provides evidence based mental health treatment to children and their families within our community. Children that receive services with our clinic have experienced varying types of abuse including; verbal, physical, and sexual abuse; maltreatment; and a variety of other mental health issues.
Our clinical service program employs 7 mental health clinicians that are specifically trained in evidence-based treatments. These therapies include trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT), and play therapy for young children. These therapies are designed to provide specialized treatment to help children who have experienced trauma. These therapies also allow the clinician to engage the entire family system in the treatment process. In addition, Childhelp provides therapy rooms, which are designed to provide healing experiences for children using child-friendly materials and resources. Childhelp therapists understand that trauma negatively impacts the whole family system and in recognition of this we provide group therapy, individual therapy, and family therapy sessions for children as well as parents.
Childhelp Staff are committed to the healing process and thus our primary goal of the mental health clinic is to work with children and families to provide the necessary tools to heal. Childhelp provides access, at no cost, to quality mental health services to children and families within our community. The therapists at Childhelp mental health clinical services, are dedicated to the children and families we serve and strive to provide quality services to all those we work with.
- Access to no-cost mental health services
- Trauma-focused care
- Evidence-based therapies
- Individualized care for each child
- 124 children served with 2300 therapy hours in FY2022
